Summary of Iran Stories in Today&apos;s BroadcastsBehnam NateghiMonday, March 08, 2004
<b>RadioFarda&apos;s Coverage of the International Day of Women</b>
• As thousands gathered in Park Leleh near Tehran University to take part in the rally called for by “Campaign to End Violence Against Women,” the police and plainclothes security forces blocked the way and announced that the permit for the rally has been revoked by the interior ministry, whereas organizers at the Women&apos;s Cultural Center were told by the office of the Tehran prosecutor at 11 AM that their event was banned, although neither the prosecutor&apos;s office nor the police could produce a written order. At 6 PM, an hour after the organizers had left the scene, the police said the event could go on, but soon moved in to push event goers out of the park. People began shouting slogans as they were being pushed to the southern gates of the park, which were closed. In their slogans, they called for a referendum on the regime and the repeal of discriminatory Islamic laws. (Ali Sajjadi)
• In a letter to Irene Khan, secretary general of Amnesty International, the womeniniran.com website invited her to Iran for a first-hand observation of the problems faced by Iranian women. (Shireen Famili)
• In a speech at the UN International Labor Organization, Shirin Ebadi said she was wearing black to show her grief on Women&apos;s Day. “The failure by governments across the Islamic world to respect women&apos;s rights has hampered even hesitant steps toward political change, she said, adding that “the rights of women and democracy are one and the same thing.” The position of women in Islamic countries is due to the patriarchal system in these countries, which reject democracy, as well as gender equality, she added. “An Iranian woman faces an easier situation than women in hard-line Saudi Arabia, but still needs her husband&apos;s permission to work, travel or divorce,” Ebadi said. Speaking alongside Ebadi, Carla Del Ponte -- chief prosecutor of the U.N. war crimes tribunal -- said women have raised their profile on the international stage over the past decade. (Mahmonir Rahimi, Geneva)
• Three prominent female authors take part in today&apos;s <b>RadioFarda Roundtable</b>, which is focused on the Iranian women&apos;s movement in the Islamic Republic. Author and Johns Hopkins University English professor <b>Azar Nafisi</b> says it is ironic that in the era of the Islamic Republic, which tries to take away women&apos;s rights, the issue has taken center stage. The Islamic Republic could not take away from the Iranian women their past achievements and the world&apos;s advances in women&apos;s rights. Author and Britain&apos;s York University professor <b>Haleh Afshar</b> says: The Islamic Republic never wanted the women to have freedom and equality, but the Iranian women resisted. Author and former UN representative in Afghanistan <b>Parvin Payedar</b> says the Iranian women have a long way to go, even though their efforts, along with the realities of a modern society, have helped them resist the Islamic Republic in a campaign to regain the rights they had gained under the former regime, such as equality in marriage and divorce. However, she adds, many of the rights, such as the right to choose their dress, travel abroad, equality in marriage and divorce, and many other rights have been taken away, as the Islamic Republic legalized a patriarchal order. (Shahran Tabari, London)
• Several prominent writers based in Iran, Europe and the US took part in the first online seminar organized by the womeniniran.com website. UCLA professor Nayereh Tohidi said women in Iran have reached a level of awareness, as a result of the confluence of local and national conditions with international movement for women&apos;s rights. Magazine editor Shoaleh Irani said the Iranian women&apos;s movement has an organized structure and has grown horizontally by adopting such causes as the plight of street children and the environment. Women&apos;s rights activist Maryam Khorasani said the women&apos;s rights movement has succeeded in broadening awareness about women&apos;s issues beyond the intellectual community. Writer Soheila Vahdati said the destiny of the women&apos;s rights movement should not be linked to that of any other political movement. Writer and activist Marzieh Mortazi Langaroodi said in the past 100 years, all decisions affecting women in Iran have been made by men at the top, and in the Islamic Republic these decisions have always focused on the preservation of the regime itself. (Maryam Ahmadi)
• The UN and Geneva University invited 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi to Geneva. She is scheduled to speak at the Swiss parliament, as well as at an event organized by the Parsian society. Geneva-based organizer <b>Alireza Vaez-zadeh</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that Parsian&apos;s goal is to promote the peaceful movement of the Iranian people towards democracy. Former UNESCO advisor and Tehran-based commentator <b>Ehsan Naraghi</b>, who is in Geneva for the event, tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that the event is organized by young Iranians who are eager to introduce to the world a woman who has earned the Nobel Peace Prize for her work. For a change, he adds, a positive aspect of Iran&apos;s ancient culture and civilization is being shown to the world. (Mahmonir Rahimi)
• For the first time, many universities are holding events on women&apos;s rights on the International Day of Women, Tehran-based activist <b>Mahin Khadivi</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. Violence against women is accompanied by laws that do not protect the victims, Tehran-based sociologist and women&apos;s rights activist <b>Shahla Ezazi</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. (Kianusch Faried, Vienna)
• Women play a key role in the democratization process in Iran, Illinois State University and Toronto University professor <b>Mohammad Tavakoli-Taraqi</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. Due to the pressures and restrictions, a major evolution has taken place within families, which makes gender equality a possibility in Iran, he adds. (Maryam Aghvami, Toronto)
• In a seminar sponsored by Cologne-based Talash Center, <b>Simin Esfahani</b> spoke about the Iranian women&apos;s demands in the past 100 years. Women were not a part of decision making, she tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. (Shahram Mirian, Cologne)
• In an interview with Zurich daily <i>Tabblott</i>, Shirin Ebadi insisted that Islam is compatible with democracy, blaming the Islamic government&apos;s laws for the inequalities and discrimination. Tagblott doubts Ebadi&apos;s ability to become a source of major change in Iran. (Shahram Mirian, Cologne)
• Despite pressures from police and enforcers of the Islamic dress code, every day more women use lipstick and eye shadow in violation of the Islamic codes, making the inevitable revolution that would change Iran the “eye shadow revolution,” Italian Catholic daily <i>Annienire</i> writes. (Ahmad Ra&apos;fat, Rome)
• In addition to Shirin Ebadi, who received the Nobel Peace Prize, many Iranian women were prominent in the news, including Canadian Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who died in custody from head wounds she received during interrogation; Laleh and Ladan, conjoined twins, who died in Singapore after an operation to separate them failed; filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf, who won the jury&apos;s award in the Cannes International Film Festival; Shohreh Aghdashloo, who was nominated for an Academy Award; Nazanin Afshar-Jam who became Miss Canada; Shahrbanou Mazandarani, who was pulled alive from under the rubble nine days after the Bam earthquake; and Fatemeh Haqiqatjou, who resigned as a Tehran MP to protest against election irregularities. (Maryam Ahmadi)
• For women to gain equality, they must have a role in economic production, novelist Farzaneh Karampour, who was trained as an engineer, tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. It was the women who gave men their prominence by sitting home, she adds. (Maryam Ahmadi)
<b>Tehran Judiciary Summons Cabinet Spokesman for Critique of Elections</b>
• Cabinet spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh appeared in court today to answer to the charge of disturbing public minds by his comments criticizing the Guardians Council&apos;s elimination of 2,400 reformists from the elections. Ramezanzadeh had also spoken of the existence of an anti-reform headquarters, which, according to an intelligence ministry report, provides funds for the many conservative websites critical of the reformist faction. (Keyvan Hosseini)
<b>Regular and Irregular Imports Reach $40 Billion</b>
• Based on the latest statistics issued by official sources, the country&apos;s imports, including goods imported through channels other than the customs bureau, have reached $40 billion. In the first 11 months of the fiscal year that began on March 22, 2003, the customs bureau recorded $24.2 billion of imports, and the fiscal year&apos;s total is estimated at $27 billion. However, according to deputy commerce minister Mohsen Bahrami, the country&apos;s irregular imports ballooned to $13 billion. The figure shows the size of the nation&apos;s underground economy, and the political and financial power of the complicated network which controls the irregular imports. (Fereydoun Khavand)
<b>Inspectors Found Previously Undisclosed Nuclear Projects, IAEA Report Says</b>
• UN inspectors found evidence of previously undisclosed nuclear projects, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a report that chief Mohamed ElBaradei submitted to the agency&apos;s board of governors today. The report is a setback to Tehran&apos;s efforts to convince the world that its nuclear program is peaceful and that it is fully cooperating with the U.N. agency, the Associated Press reported in a dispatch from Vienna. The report said inspectors found plutonium used for triggering atomic bombs, as well as traces of dual purpose plutonium 210. (Shireen Famili)
• The IAEA board of governors began studying ElBaradei&apos;s report in a closed-door meeting. (Alireza Taheri)
• Iran&apos;s nuclear program will remain on the agency&apos;s agenda, IAEA spokesperson <b>Melissa Fleming</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. The most important issue at the moment is finding the source of the highly enriched uranium traces on Iran&apos;s centrifuge equipment, she adds. (Fariba Mavedat)
<b>Teachers Strike Expands on the Third Day</b>
• On its third day, the teachers&apos; strike expanded to many provinces. The week-long strike, called by 15 trade associations and groups, is the last in a series of actions and demonstrations that the teachers have held across the country during the past year to demand pay increases to match that of other government employees. <b>Naser Azimi</b>, a middle school teacher in Tehran&apos;s 16th educational district, tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that the schools are open and the students are in their classes, but teachers refuse to go to the classes. With teachers out of classes, controlling the students has become the problem of school principals. (Nima Tamadon)
<b>Petrochemical Industry Holds Seminar on Downstream Industries</b>
• In a two-day seminar held on Kish island, experts discussed the potential of downstream projects, which have not been utilized. Iran, with its wealth of raw material for petrochemical production, has lagged behind in the field; even though it was a pioneer in the region 44 years ago. The 15-year effort of the Islamic government to complete a major petrochemical plant did not help change Iran&apos;s marginal position in the world market. Head of the national petrochemical company said Iran&apos;s petrochemical industry is at least 20 years behind Saudi Arabia. (Fereydoun Khavand, Paris)
<b>Comparison with Switzerland Shames Tehran Judiciary Chief</b>
• Returning from an official visit to Switzerland two years ago, where he was shown around the courts and judicial system, head of Tehran judiciary Abassali Alizadeh said he felt ashamed to discuss the number of prisoners and the number of cases under review in the Islamic government&apos;s judiciary with his Swiss counterparts. Alizadeh cited the trip in a press conference today, in response to a question on the judiciary&apos;s case volume. (Keyvan Hosseini)
<b>Reformist MP Calls for Open Sessions of the Experts Assembly</b>
• In a speech at the open session of the Majles yesterday, Tehran MP Ali-Akbar Mousavi-Khoeini said the Assembly of Experts, which began a two-day session yesterday in Qum, should decide on the legality and fairness of the Supreme Leader&apos;s decision to back the Guardians Council in rejecting the candidacy of 2,400 reformists in the February 20 Majles elections. Reformist MP Majid Ansari said in an interview with state-run “students” news agency ISNA that discussing issues in open sessions and hearing testimony from high level experts would raise the position and legitimacy of the Assembly of Experts. The assembly of 86 representatives elected by voters after screening by the Guardians Council is charged with selecting the Supreme Leader and monitoring his conduct. In yesterday&apos;s session Assembly member Ayatollah Ali Movahedi Kermani, representative of the Supreme Leader in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp, said we do not feel obligated to reveal to the public our monitoring process. Fortunately, he added, the Supreme Leader has not made any errors and his answers to the Experts&apos; monitoring committee have been satisfactory. (Ardavan Niknam)
• The critics will get their response in a television program, deputy speaker of the Assembly of Experts Ayatollah Ebrahim Amini said this morning, as the Assembly began the last day of its two-day session. To familiarize the public with the Assembly&apos;s monitoring process and to answer the critics, a series of TV shows will be produced, he added. (Nima Tamadon)
<b>Switzerland To Deport Iranian Asylum Seeker</b>
• The Swiss press published several interviews with S.J., a 25-year engineering school graduate, who is being deported back to Iran after three years&apos; review of his asylum application. He said he works as a waiter in a train station coffee shop and has converted to Christianity. International human rights and refugee advocacy organizations are still trying to prevent his deportation. (Shahram Mirian, Cologne)
<b>Police Shoot Seven in Bam Unrest</b>
• At least seven were wounded when police opened fire on Bam earthquake survivors demonstrating against their living conditions and the slow relief work two months after the earthquake, Stockholm daily <i>Dagens Nyheter</i> writes in a dispatch by its reporter in Iran Per Jonsson. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) and other official institutions appropriated much of the aid sent by the UN, the International Red Cross and more than 20 other international organs, it said. (Elaheh Ravanshad, Stockholm)
• Of the $12 million foreign aid, the Iranian society of the Red Crescent has received only $2 million; it is not clear where the other $10 million have gone, head of the Iranian Red Crescent society Ali Nourbala said today. Nobody had the right to appropriate the earthquake relief aid, but many organizations, including the foreign ministry and economy and finance ministry did so, and some of the donated goods were appropriated by other organs and institutions. (Jamshid Chalangi)
<b>Cleric Links Islamic Government with Extremist Shiite Iraqis</b>
• The key link between the Shiite clergy in southern Iraq and the fundamental clerics in charge of the Islamic government is Qum-based cleric Mohammad-Hossein Haeri, Italian weekly <i>L&apos;Espresso</i> writes. The Iraqi Shiites should prepare for defending themselves and their interests, Haeri said, adding that the time has not come for armed resistance against the foreigners who have occupied Iraq. Haeri is most concerned about a possible rapprochement between the US and the Islamic government, the first casualty of which would be the extremist Shiites groups in Iraq, L&apos;Espresso reporter writes. (Ahmad Ra&apos;fat, Rome)
• A democratic Shiite government in Iraq would have a profound impact on Iran, the Associated Press writes. (Jamshid Chalangi)
<b>The Guardians Council Finds Lowering Its Budget Un-Islamic and Unconstitutional</b>
• The Guardians Council said the part of the government&apos;s budget for the upcoming fiscal year that reduced the Council&apos;s operating budget is contrary to Islam and unconstitutional, and would prevent the Council from tending to its highly important mission. (Fatemeh Aman)
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فريبا مودت (راديو فردا): امروز هشتم مارس، روز جهاني زن است. اما گردهمايي گروه هاي طرفدار حقوق زنان و مخالفان خشونت عليه آنها در پارك لاله تهران، از سوي مقامات محلي غير قانوني خوانده شد. به گزارش خبرگزاري فرانسه، يك مقام بلندپايه نيروي انتظامي تهران گفت: از آنجايي كه هيچگونه درخواست قانوني براي اين گردهمايي دريافت نشده است، اين تجمع غير قانوني است. هفت گروه طرفدار زنان در ايران شامل: مركز فرهنگي زنان و جامعه زنان مستقل براي گردهمايي امروز در پارك لاله تهران دعوت شده بودند. آنها در يك سخنراني مشترك اعلام كردند اين گردهمايي در اعتراض به خشونت گسترده عليه زنان در خانه و اماكن عمومي است. فرين عاصمي از يك روزنامه نگار تهراني كه امروز در پارك لاله حضور داشته، خواسته مشاهداتش را به راديو فردا بگويد.
روزنامه نگار تهراني: ساعت پنج بعد از ظهر من رسيدم به ضلع شمال غرب پارك لاله. جمعيتي حدود هزار تا هزار و 500 نفر جمع شده بودند، نيروي انتظامي هم بود. بعد خانمها اعتراض مي كردند كه چرا جلوي مراسم گرفته شده و يكي از مسئولان برگزار كننده مراسم بيايد اين را اعلام كند. بعد يك خانمي آمد اين را اعلام كرد كه ساعت 11 صبح گويا مراسم لغو شده، با اين حال خانمها ماندند آنجا. در حدود 10 تا 15 درصد جمعيت آقايان بودند كه آقايان را نيروي انتظامي سعي مي كرد از خانمها جدا كند. بعد ديگر كم كم جمعيت بيشتر شد، خانمها شروع كردند به خواندن سرود اي ايران و يار دبستاني و بعد شروع كردند به دست زدن و سوت زدن. نيروي انتظامي هم ديگر سعي نمي كرد زياد مردم را پراكنده كند. همانطوري جمع شده بودند در آن محوطه و سرود مي خواندند.
فرين عاصمي (راديو فردا): كسي هم سخنراني كرد؟
روزنامه نگار تهراني: نه جلوي سخنراني را مي گرفتند و كسي نمي توانست سخنراني كند. بالاي تريبون نمي گذاشتند كسي برود. خود نيروي انتظامي بالاي تريبون ايستاده بود و سعي مي كردند مردم را محترمانه پراكنده كنند، ولي مردم مي ايستادند، مي رفتند يكم آنطرفتر دوباره مي آمدند جلو. درگيري هم پيش نيامد.
ف . ع : بعد اين مراسم از طرف چه ارگاني لغو شده؟
روزنامه نگار تهراني: اين را نمي گفتند. مردم هم سئوال مي كردند از مسئولين برگزاري مراسم. يك خانمي بود كه به نمايندگي از طرف مسئولين آمده بود، ولي نمي گفتند. فقط مي گفتند يازده صبح يك فكس زده شده و گفتند كه مجوز باطل است. نيروي انتظامي هم مرتب مي گفت مجوز باطل شده، لغو شده، پراكنده بشويد، بفرماييد، ولي مردم ايستاده بودند.
ف . ع : واكنش مردم چه بود؟
روزنامه نگار تهراني: خيليها برايشان بي تفاوت بود. انگار كه اصلا مي دانستند كه قرار است كنسل بشود و كسي چيزي نمي گفت. يعني مردم عصباني نبودند و خيلي بي تفاوت ايستاده بودند. گردهمايي گروه هاي طرفدار حقوق زنان و مخالفان خشونت عليه آنها در پارك لاله تهران، از سوي مقامات محلي غير قانوني خوانده شد. يك مقام بلندپايه نيروي انتظامي تهران گفت که چون هيچگونه درخواست قانوني براي اين گردهمايي دريافت نشده است، اين تجمع غير قانوني است. هفت گروه طرفدار زنان در ايران شامل: مركز فرهنگي زنان و جامعه زنان مستقل براي گردهمايي امروز در پارك لاله تهران دعوت شده بودند. يك روزنامه نگار تهراني كه امروز در پارك لاله حضور داشت، در مصاحبه با راديوفردا مي گويد که جمعتي در حدود هزار و 500 تن در پارک جمع شدند و نيروي انتظامي سعي در پراکنده کردن جمعيت کرد. وي مي گويد که برخوردي در اين ميان رخ نداد و جمعيت به خواندن سرود اي ايران و ياردبستاني و دست و سوت زدن پرداختند. نيروي انتظامي با اشغال تريبون از سخنراني در اين گردهمائي جلوگيري كردند.